Miso Soup for the Soul
Submitted by Anh Ho
In American culture, there’s chicken soup to comfort, warm, and replenish the body and soul. However, in Asian culture, there’s phở, tom yum soup, sopas, and the more culturally known miso soup! Miso soup is known for its umami-rich flavor and healthy probiotic ingredients. There are thousands of ways to make this delicious soup, but here are three variations of my favorite recipes for miso soup found on youtube – https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nm48b9oBPY. The ingredients are easy to find at your nearest Asian market or farmer’s market. These recipes only take about 10 minutes’ worth of effort to watch. Disclaimer: These are not my recipes, but I will leave notes at the end. A huge thank you to Marc Matsumoto for these very creative variations of the traditional miso soup!
Ingredients
White Miso Soup
- 1 1/2 cups dashi
- 75 grams kabocha pumpkin (sliced)
- 50 grams onion (sliced)
- 2 tablespoons white miso (add more to taste)
- mitsuba (chopped, for garnish)
Yellow Miso Soup
- 1 1/2 cups dashi
- 30 grams carrots (thinly sliced)
- 1 tablespoon miso (add more to taste)
- 90 grams soft tofu (cubed)
- 40 grams spinach (chopped)
Red Miso Soup
- 1 1/2 cups dashi
- 75 grams eggplant
- 30 grams aburaage (thin fried tofu)
- 1 tablespoon miso (add more to taste)
- scallions (chopped, for garnish)
The best part about these three recipes is that you can add as much tofu as you want, I personally prefer to add soft tofu. I also like to add a teaspoon of fish sauce to enhance the flavor, but not too much to destroy the miso flavor. If I have seaweed in my fridge, I slice and throw seaweed into the pot. A secret ingredient of mine is enoki mushrooms. Finally, I like to eat my miso soup with a snack like spam musubi or a plain bowl of rice to balance the quick and easy dish. Again, these are things I like to add to enhance the flavor, but not necessary for a simple miso soup. Use these recipes for a relaxing evening, treat yourself to a bowl of miso soup.
Works Cited
Donofrio, Jeanine, “Miso Soup,” Love and Lemons, https://www.loveandlemons.com/miso-soup/.
Matsumoto, Marc. “ULTIMATE Miso Soup Recipe (3-styles) (お味噌汁).” Youtube, uploaded by No Recipes, 17 Mar 2019, https://youtu.be/2Nm48b9oBPY.
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